To Spend or Not to Spend

[bluejeans07]

So, I have an opportunity to buy a refurbished Wacom Cintiq 20WSX, the 20" monitor for about $1200. Yowza. It's a pretty good deal considering new ones go for around $2300. I'm still hesitant on getting it though. I need opinions!

Pros:
- Super, super useful. I can draw directly onto the computer!
- I can PAINT directly onto the computer!
- Screen is nice and big!

Cons:
- I only have a macbook pro laptop, I'll need to figure out how to be able to hook it up to my lappy and I have NO idea.
- I don't really have a lot of work space. My work area is pretty tiny and the Cintiq would dominate a huge chunk of it.
- I kind of want a nicer scanner more than I want a cintiq. A scanner that can scan larger sizes than 8.5" x 11" are also expensive and hard to find as well.

Thoughts, flist? And while I'm hemming and hawing here's the post for the artists on my flists to get in on the action: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sfv/sys/1773276600.html

Also, I might not have my lappy for a few days. Something's wrong and the cursor keeps getting stuck and not working, so I made an appointment at the Genius Bar for tomorrow morning. D:

Edit: Lappy is FIXED! Woo hoo!! Turns out that the battery had warped into a weird shape so it was constantly pushing the track pad in a way that made the lappy think it was always selected!

Comments

[lynxgriffin.livejournal.com]

Ohdamn, I'd totally go for it if I were you. *_* I've been lusting after a Cintiq for years, but the price keeps driving me away. But that really is what everyone is using nowadays, so I should get one eventually. (Although I can understand the draw of a Really Nice Scanner, too...)

Hope lappy gets better! D: The mac genius bar has always been able to help me out with stuff.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I am only suggesting this because it's what I did, but it might be helpful: You can often find one of the older Cintiq models on eBay for quite cheap.* I got a 15" which only goes up to a resolution of 1024x768 but that's plenty good enough for me, and $400 is a lot more comfortable an investment than $1800 or $2300, especially when I'm only really using it for hobby stuff anyway.

Of course, that doesn't solve the problem of your Macbook not having a monitor port, but ...

*in relative terms, of course